Critical thinking skills have emerged as a vital tool for the professional nurse confronting an explosion of technology and compressed plans of treatment. The purpose of this research was to compare the critical thinking skills of experienced registered nurses from two practice settings: the operating room and general medical-surgical floors. Critical thinking was defined as a "composite of attitudes, knowledge, and skills" (Watson-Glaser, 1980, p. 1).The research of Benner (1984) provided the foundation for this research. Benner documented the development of knowledge and skill in nursing practice. Nurses at the proficient and expert stages of development were the focus of this research.A non-random, convenience sample containing fifty one nurses was drawn from two Midwestern hospitals. Demographic data was gathered to further describe the sample. Participation in the study was voluntary and anonymity of subjects was assured.The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) (1980) was the instrument utilized to measure the critical thinking skills of the experienced nurses. This tool has established validity and reliability and is considered a benchmark for measuring critical thinking ability.Analysis of the WGCTA (1980), results revealed a mean of 54.29, SD 9.66 for the total group of experienced registered nurses (N=5 1). For the operating room nurses (n=28) a mean of 52.71 with a SD of 9.41 was obtained. Among the medical-surgical nurses (n=23), the mean score was 56.21 with a SD of 9.81. T-test and MANOVA analysis was carried out. No significant statistical differences were found between the means in either the total scores of the WGCTA or on the five sub-tests for the two groups. The data submitted for analysis reflected a very experienced group (51 % with > 15 years nursing experience) and predominate Associate and Diploma preparation (61 %). Norming information available for the WGCTA indicated the scores obtained in this research were comparable to much larger samples drawn from nursing students and police officers.A conclusion of this research is that critical thinking, as measured by the WGCTA (1980), develops uniformly across diverse practice areas. An examination of the usefulness of the WGCTA to accurately measure the process of critical thinking in experienced nurses is recommended. More research into the important issues of critical thinking and experienced nursing practice is recommended. / School of Nursing
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/185269 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Gosse, C. Suzanne |
| Contributors | Ball State University. School of Nursing., Brigham, Carole J. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | v, 69 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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